It All Happened in September
by toavoidconversation
Summary: Rose and Scorpius have known each other for longer than they realise. But does it really make a difference? Challenge fic.
1. Chapter 1

**It All Happened in September**

Chapter One

It started, I suppose, with a cherry. Funny how things start with something so mundane, so unimportant, and yet, from it, stems something so...essential. I remember the picnic quite well now, the picnic which led me to such an interesting encounter with a peculiar little boy.

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><p><em>September 2013: Rose is 6<em>

_The Weasley family and the Potter family were enjoying a picnic in the park. It was a regular arrangement; Hermione Weasley loved to spend a few warm September afternoons in the park with her friends and family (in fact, friends and family were practically the same thing these days). And so she and her husband would bring their children and meet up with Harry and Ginny Potter and their children, and the group would spend the afternoon spread out on the grass, chatting and enjoying themselves._

_For a six year-old Rose Weasley, it was quite boring. Her brother Hugo, was kicking up a fuss as usual, refusing to eat his tomatoes, and his face was so red that it was beginning to resemble the fruit he didn't want to eat. Her little cousin, Lily was trying to catch a butterfly, her pudgy hands never quite high enough to grab it, much to Rose's relief; she knew that if you caught a butterfly, it would die. Five year-old Albus was no fun; he just wanted to sit with his father and suck on his thumb. The only person who was ever any fun was her older cousin James, but he wasn't even there; he was spending the day with his grandmother._

_So, in consequence, Rose Weasley was very, very, bored._

_The grown-ups were chatting away, talking about stuff that only grown-ups do, and Rose gave up trying to understand. In the end she tugged her mum's sleeve._

_"Mummy?"_

_Hermione looked down at her daughter and patted her curls. "What is it, Rosie?"_

_Rose pointed over to the playground down the hill. "Can I go and play?"_

_Her mum looked at her dad and he grinned. "Course you can, Rosie. Why don't you take Al?" he suggested._

_Rosie crinkled her eyebrows. She didn't want to take Albus, he was too boring. Luckily, Albus made that decision for her; he snuggled closer to his dad and shook his head. Rose's Uncle Harry laughed. "Albus might come along later, Rosie."_

_Rose looked back at her mum. "Mummy?" she asked again, and her mum smiled at her._

_"Off you go," she said. "But be careful!"_

_Rose made to get up and run off, before she turned back. What if she got hungry while she was playing? She scanned the picnic carpet. There were sausage rolls, pumpkin pasties, sandwiches, and all sorts of other foods. Making a decision, Rose grabbed a handful of cherries before scampering off towards the playground._

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><p><em>Rose sat in the sand pit, her diminishing pile of cherries on the ledge next to her. On the other side she carefully lined up the stones from the fruit so they were all touching in a nice, straight line. Just as she was placing another stone in the line, they were all scattered by a blur of a child jumping into the sand pit, spraying grains of sand all over the place.<em>

_"Hey!" Rose shouted, indignantly. "Look what you did!"_

_The offender turned around to look down at her. He was a small boy, with quite pointy features and a mess of white-blonde hair on his head, in complete disarray, bits of it falling into his cold blue eyes, which seemed very grown up for such a young boy. He frowned at Rose._

_"What were you doing?" he asked, not unkindly._

_Rose opened her mouth to answer, and said, "I can't eat the stones or a cherry tree will grow in my tummy." Then suddenly she snapped her mouth shut again. She mumbled, "Mummy says don't talk to strangers."_

_The boy sat in the sand and faced her. "I'm Scorpius. Now I'm your friend, not a stranger," he grinned._

_Rose crinkled her brow. "Scorpius?" she said slowly, running the name off her lips. "That's a silly name."_

_Scorpius scowled. "No, it isn't!" he said. "My daddy says my name is a group of stars. Do you know what a star is?"_

_"Of course I do!" Rose protested. "I am six years old, and I can read. I read about stars once."_

_"Well, I'm named after them." Scorpius said firmly. "Bet your name isn't stars."_

_Rose shook her head. "My name is a flower. Rose. Do you want a cherry?" she asked abruptly, holding out the one in her hand._

_"But your dirty fingers have touched it!" Scorpius exclaimed. "My daddy says you shouldn't touch food with your hands."_

_"My hands aren't dirty!" Rose said and held up her palm. Then she licked it. "See?" she said, holding her hand out. "Clean enough to eat."_

_Scorpius leant back from her outstretched hand. "Yuck!" he said, and Rose stuck her tongue out at him, withdrawing her palm. Scorpius reached forward and grabbed a cherry from beside her instead. He raised it to his lips._

_"Careful of the stone," Rose warned. "You don't want a tree in your belly."_

_Scorpius laughed. "That's not true!" he giggled._

_"It is! My mummy said so! And she's really clever," Rose replied huffily. Then she looked from Scorpius to the cherry. "I dare you to eat the stone, then," she said with a smile. "Then we'll see if a tree grows!"_

_Scorpius examined the fruit closely, thinking it over. Then he grinned at Rose._

_"I'll do something better!" he announced. He leaned closer. "D'you want to know a secret?" he whispered._

_"What?" Rose whispered back._

_Scorpius waited for a second, for effect, then he said grandly, "I can do magic! Wanna see?"_

_Rose looked at him, unimpressed. "My whole family can do magic, and so can I," she told him, and Scorpius' eyes grew wide._

_"Really?" he said. "So can mine! Wanna see my magic?"_

_And without waiting for an answer, he placed the cherry in the palm of his hand, and screwed his face up tight, looking intently at the cherry. Slowly but surely, the fruit began to rise out of his hand, just by a few centimetres, before Scorpius exhaled in a gust of air and the cherry dropped._

_"Ta-da!" he said in a singsong voice._

_Rose gasped. "You're not supposed to do magic outside!" she admonished. "People...y'know, Muggles, they might see! Mummy says you have to wait til you get to Hogwarts to do magic."_

_"You know about Hogwarts too?" Scorpius beamed. "My mummy and daddy went to Hogwarts."_

_"Everyone in my family went to Hogwarts," Rose told him. "Except my Aunty Flower, she went to Hogwarts in France."_

_"What's France?" Scorpius frowned, his blonde hair falling further into his eyes._

_"It's another country!" Rose said with a grin. "You have to swim across the sea to get there."_

_"I can't swim," Scorpius said._

_"You have to learn! There's a lake at Hogwarts."_

_"Can you teach me? When we're at Hogwarts?" Scorpius asked excitedly._

_"Yes! We'll be best friends when we go to Hogwarts." Rose said with a huge smile._

_Scorpius paused before asking, "Can we be best friends now? I don't have a best friend."_

_Rose thought for a moment, her head tilted on one side so that her strawberry-blonde curls fell over her face a little. Then she nodded. "Okay," she said._

_From behind them, Hermione appeared in the distance. "Rosie! Rose! Time to go, sweetheart!" she called._

_Rose looked around. Hermione stood at the top of the hill, and was waving Rose over to her. The little girl stood up and brushed the sand off her dress. "Bye, Scorpius!" She said, and ran off, leaving a sand-covered Scorpius and a pile of cherry stones behind her._

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><p>I didn't see Scorpius again after that for a long time. Four years is a long time for a little girl. A lot of children that age don't remember something or someone from four hours ago. So when I saw Scorpius on the platform on my first day at Hogwarts, I didn't remember him as the little boy who was so excited to show me magic one day in the sand pit. He was just another unknown face in the crowd at the time.<p>

But I have a feeling he remembered me. Eventually.

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><p><strong>AN: So, I got through to Round Two of the "Writing Your Butt Off and Typing Until Your Fingers Bleed" Challenge, and yeah, my fingers are actually so sore and blistered from writing this story!**

**If you are interested in what the challenge was for this round, here it is:**

**"ROUND TWO, **involves writing a gritty, romantic, fluffy, love-filled, 3 chaptered story.

Ch. 1- Must involve how they met.

Ch.2 Must include one milestone they overcame together.

Ch.3 is entirely up to the reader's gritty, or fluffy imagination.

Guidelines- they story can border M, but I'd like to keep it T...er, plus lol.

No cussing, please.

Longer than 500 words chapter, but less than 2,000 is a good range.

You must use the word- _cherry _the song-_i was made for loving you, by KISS, _and the prompt-_brushing hair"_

**Every week you have to post the next chapter, so you'll see Chapter two sometime next week.**

**Oh, if you think you would like to do the challenge yourself, the forum is still open, and you can join at any time, just head over to HPFC :)**

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><p><strong>PLEASE REVIEW! XOXOX<strong>


	2. Chapter 2

_**NB:** FF says that this chapter is 3,129 words long; that's a lie, it's just because it has a lot of line breaks, and that affects the word count. It's actually a little over 2,500..._

**Chapter Two**

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><p>"Make sure you beat him in every test, Rosie. Thank God you inherited your mother's brains."<p>

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><p>My dad told me that when I arrived on the platform on my first day at Hogwarts, when we caught sight of the Malfoy family for the first time on September 1st. Scorpius looked the spitting image of his father; blonde hair slicked back and just skimming the top of his collar, his blue eyes like ice, looking disdainfully at everyone he walked past, with a hint of a swagger.<p>

I saw and noted him, and when my dad told me that I had to beat him, I took his words to heart. Not because I was an impressionable eleven year-old (although that was true enough), but because of what I saw in Malfoy's eyes when his gaze caught mine momentarily.

_A challenge._

Maybe I was seeing things, but a few months into my first year and I knew that it had not been a trick of the light. Scorpius Malfoy had been put on the Earth purely as my opponent.

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><p><em><strong>September 2019: Rose is 12<strong>_

_Rose Weasley and a few of her fellow second-year Ravenclaws were walking briskly down the corridor, conversing as they made their way to Potions. They arrived in the dungeons in almost no time at all, and lined up outside the classroom just as they always did._

_"So Rose, what are you doing for Halloween?" asked one of her friends, Milly._

_"Mil, it's only September!" Rose protested._

_"Yeah, but you need to have an idea for the costume already, Rose!" Milly insisted. As Rose opened her mouth to argue back, a smooth drawl arose from behind her._

_"Weasley doesn't need a costume, Wentworth," Scorpius Malfoy said cooly. "She's hideous enough as it is."_

_Rose spun round to face him. "You know, Malfoy, that joke gets old quite quickly after the four-hundredth time."_

_Scorpius raised an eyebrow. "Who said it was a joke?" he said simply, then turned to enter the classroom. "Oh, and by the way, may the best potion win."_

_There was nothing odd about this statement, the sentiment had been almost exactly the same ever since they had started Potions; Rose and Scorpius were the two most competent Potioneers in the class, and it had become, almost by default, some form of competition. Not only were Rose and Scorpius competing against each other, but it got to the point where all the Ravenclaw members of their class saw it as a personal victory if Rose's potion was given highest compliments in a lesson, as the Slytherins laid claim to Malfoy's triumphs._

_This particular lesson was Ravenclaw's point, as Rose pulled off a flawless Swelling Solution, much to the delight of Professor Slughorn. As he poured praise and house-points, Rose looked over to Malfoy and smirked._

_Ravenclaw, one, Slytherin, nil._

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><p><em><strong>September 2020: Rose is 13<strong>_

_"We're gonna whip your ass, Weasley."_

_"That's what you think, Malfoy. Why don't you just admit you're a rubbish Seeker?"_

_"Because you're getting me mixed up with you. _You're_ the rubbish Seeker, and I'm the good one."_

_"In your dreams, Malfoy!"_

_"Sure, Weasley. Except we are gonna win."_

_The match ended, with both teams completely soaked from the relentless rain which had plagued them for the entire duration. Rose shivered slightly as her curls stuck to her head and face, completely saturated with water. She walked with the rest of her team, wet and dejected._

_"What did I tell you, Weasley?"_

_Rose closed her eyes and counted to three. "Sod off, Malfoy, before I do something I'll regret."_

_She could practically _feel_ him smirking from behind her, and she clenched her hands tightly round her broomstick._

_"How does it feel, Weasley, being rubbish at something?" He said, with the tone of someone pretending to be sincere. Rose resisted the urge to give him the finger, and instead focused on taking deep breaths and making purposeful strides towards the Ravenclaw changing rooms._

_Once she was a little warmer and a lot dryer, she took a detour on the way back to her common room, and found herself in a small, unused classroom, where she spent the best part of half an hour destroying everything in her view. Chairs, tables, books, inkwells; if it was there, it was destroyed._

_"Stupid, stupid!" she said angrily with every violent stab of her wand. The worst part was, she couldn't decide whether she was talking about Malfoy, for beating her, or about herself, for letting him._

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><p><em><strong>September 2022: Rose is 15<strong>_

_"Can I sit here?"_

_Rose looked up at the sound of the familiar voice and rolled her eyes. He had long since stopped slicking his hair back, and it had begun to flop into his cool eyes. He raised an eyebrow and looked down at her._

_"You deaf, Weasley?"_

_Rose clenched her fist under the desk. "Well, you can, as in you are physically capable of sitting in that particular seat in this classroom, but if the question is really surrounding whether I want you to sit in that particular seat in this classroom, then I can assure you the answer is most certainly 'no'."_

_Scorpius stayed silent for a moment. "No, I think I meant the first one."_

_"In which case, why did you ask, Malfoy? Because my response has no bearing on whether you are able or not able to sit down."_

_"Gee, when did you become so eloquent, Weasley? Your lawyer mother is clearly rubbing off on you. Or is it the shiny Prefect badge?"_

_He sat down and got out his textbooks, piling them carefully on top of each other._

_Rose couldn't help herself. "Why do you want to sit here anyway, Malfoy?"_

_He turned slowly to look at her, a grin forming on his lips. "Why, you're my favourite adversary, Weasley. Why wouldn't I want to sit in a place that will give me ultimate pleasure, since I am in a prime position to see your reaction to me beating you in Charms?"_

_"I hate you, Scorpius Malfoy."_

_"The pleasure is all mine, Weasley."_

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><p>Fifth year, the year that Scorpius Malfoy sat next to me in Charms for the first time, was our most competitive year, what with OWLs and the fact that the two of us were, for the most part, equally talented in Charms.<p>

The more we had to compete (because that is exactly what it was, a necessity to compete), the more I despised the boy. He took every moment to insult or belittle me, and was condescending and arrogant as often as possible.

And yet the challenge still beguiled me.

Until Sixth Year, when competition was the last thing on mind.

Having one of your parents being cursed does that sort of thing to a person.

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><p><em><strong>September 2023: Rose is 16<strong>_

_Rose looked down at the headline once more, before her eyes glazed over with tears. She felt cold with the same numbness she had felt when she had first read the article three days ago._

_"WAR HEROINE IN MAGICAL COMA_

_Hermione Weasley, née Granger, one-third of the illustrious Golden Trio was found in an unwakeable comatose state this morning in her office at the Ministry of Magic (Head of the Magical Law Enforcement department). It is understood thus far that she was the recipient of an as yet undisclosed cursed artefact. The question is, dear readers, why was Mrs Weasley targeted? Was it a mistake? Should other wizards be frightened for their lives? Sources close to Mrs Weasley have made no comment at this time..."_

_The news had thrown Rose back into the same limelight which she held in her first year at Hogwarts as the daughter of two members of the Golden Trio, but this time all the stares and whispers were laced with pity, not awe. Rose hated it now as much as she had then. Three days had passed since she had found out. It had been horrible; the professors could not get to her in time before she discovered the headline in the Daily Prophet. She remembered how the bile had risen in her throat and all the blood had drained from her face. Her friends' faces had swum before her eyes, and she heard Millie beside her gasp as she too read the headline. Acting quickly, she had sprung up and helped her best friend stand up and led Rose from the Great Hall, noting that her brother Hugo had risen from the Gryffindor table and was making his way to the exit as well, looking as pale as a sheet under his mop of red hair._

_The next few days passed in a blur of visits to St Mungo's, her many relatives sending updates by owl, and all of her professors constantly asking how she holding up. She hadn't been to breakfast since the day after the incident, simply because she couldn't face the way the table fell silent as everyone suddenly felt bad for talking happily. She'd become accustomed to watching the sun rise from the edge of Hagrid's pumpkin patch; the friendly giant had been more than accommodating, and had even given her a checkered blanket to wrap around herself. He never accompanied her; he knew she enjoyed the company of her own thoughts, and for that, Rose was grateful._

_This particular day, three days after Hermione was attacked, Rose read the article for the thousandth time and sighed. She really didn't need this kind of calamity in her sixth year, or any year to be honest. And poor Hugo; she didn't talk to him very often, they were not particularly close, but she saw him enough to see that this situation was affecting him badly. He didn't look much better than she felt, and the poor kid was only thirteen. No thirteen year-old should have to deal with this._

_There was a rustle of leaves behind her. She turned her head and found herself looking into the ice-blue eyes of Scorpius Malfoy. She sighed._

_"Come to gloat, Malfoy?" she said emotionlessly._

_He came closer and dropped anther newspaper in her lap. She flinched._

_"What have I got to gloat about, Weasley?"_

_Frowning, Rose picked up the paper, her hands shaking a little as she unfolded it; newspapers had begun to fill her with a sense of dread._

_"CURSED ARTEFACTS STRIKE AGAIN_

_A mere three days after the dreadful attack on Hermione Weasley, another member of the Magical Law Enforcement Team has been targeted, despite a threefold increase in security in that department. Draco Malfoy, renowned for his public conversion from the Death Eater cause, and his endless contribution to the restoration of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, as well as rising to be one of the most formidable members of the Magical Prosecution Service, has also fallen victim to our mystery curseman. He is currently undergoing treatment at St Mungo's, and according to a spokesperson is in a "critical but stable" state._

_It is as yet unknown as to how these attacks are linked, but our thoughts are with both families at this time."_

_Rose slowly folded up the paper, feeling more even more numb than she had earlier, despite thinking that was impossible. She didn't even notice Scorpius sit down on the grass next to her._

_"Malfoy...I'm...I'm sorry...you must be feeling so...awful," she whispered brokenly._

_She heard Malfoy make a little snort next to here, and saw he was smiling ruefully. "You know exactly how I'm feeling...gosh, call yourself a Ravenclaw?" he nodded towards the paper. "You went through it three days ago."_

_"Yeah...Scorpius, what's going on? What is happening? Why -"_

_Scorpius moved closer and rested a hand on top of hers. "Shh. We don't have the answers. The most important issue right now is...you called me Scorpius!"_

_Rose couldn't help herself; she broke into a small smile. "All this has been happening and all you care about is the fact that I said your name? That's ridiculous, Malfoy."_

_He gave an exaggerated sigh. "And we're back to the 'Malfoy' thing again. Damn. I was just about to try to say...Rose."_

_He said her name slowly, dragging it out into at least three syllables, and Rose swatted him gently. "Oh, shush. Fine. I think we can manage first names now."_

_"You mean, we're there? We've reached that point?" Malfoy smirked._

_"Yeah. We've reached that point in our relationship of hatred, we are now on first name basis. Congratulations." Rose said a little snarkily. She looked up at him, her eyes capturing his icy irises. "Why do we hate each other, Scorpius?"_

_Scorpius closed his eyes for a few seconds, then let out a breath. "You know, I don't think we do. Hate each other, I mean."_

_At Rose's questioning look, he continued. "No. There are people I hate, and I wouldn't even spare a look for them. I invest a lot of my time into annoying you, Rose Weasley."_

_"Yes," Rose said, with a roll of her eyes. "I know you do, and I am eternally grateful for it; you, making my life a whole lot more irritating to live!" She couldn't keep up her pretense of being annoyed; she had to admit that her rivalry with Scorpius had pushed her to achieve as much as possible academically, helping her to excel. Perhaps she had a few things to thank Scorpius for. Not that she would tell him just yet._

_They fell silent, each just finding comfort in the other's presence as the seriousness of their situation hung over them again._

_"Scorpius...d'you...d'you think they'll be okay?" Rose whispered. Scorpius instinctively wrapped his arm around her back and pulled her close, stroking her long strawberry-blonde waves. She sounded so broken, so worried, that he felt it was essential for him to comfort her as much as he could._

_But he couldn't lie to her._

_"I don't know, Rosie," he murmured. "But we'll get through it, I promise."_

_Rose leaned into him, breathing in the fresh, clean scent of his shirt. "I wish we could have become friends earlier."_

_"Friends? Is that what we are? A minute ago you hated me," Scorpius replied, and Rose could he the bemusement in his voice. She shook her head._

_"I never really hated you. I hated what you did to me, always trying to undermine me, but I never really hated you. I loved the challenge."_

_"Hmm. I can relate to that." Scorpius replied with a contemplative nod. There was a pause, then he spoke again. "So...friends, then?"_

_Rose smiled. "Friends," she said decisively. "You're not so bad, Scorpius Malfoy. I'm just sorry it took...well, something like this for me to realise it."_

_"Yeah. It sucks, doesn't it?" Scorpius replied, a little ruefully. He grasped her hand and seized it. "They'll be okay, Rose. They have the best teams working on them. They'll find a counter-curse."_

_"You think?"_

_"Rose, look at me," Scorpius said abruptly. He turned so that he could face her properly in the eye. She turned slowly, and he held her face under the chin, forcing her to meet his eyes. She looked a little fearful, and her eyes were glistening with tears that threatened to fall any minute. "Rose, listen. You have to believe that they'll get better. Yes, it's a horrible situation, but you have to remember you aren't alone. You have all your friends, your family, your teachers...and..." He paused. "And you have me."_

_Rose opened her mouth to answer, but neither of them knew what she was about to say, since Scorpius caught the words in a gentle, chaste kiss._

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><p><strong><em>AN: Thanks for your feedback on the previous chapter. I haven't used any of the prompts for this chapter, but they will be used in the last chapter, which hasn't yet been written, but will be done before next weekend (round the 29th). This one is out early because it's my birthday this Saturday so I don't know when I would have the time to post this :)_**

**_Thanks again, and please leave your thoughts! xxx_**


	3. Chapter 3

It All Happened in September – Chapter 3

**September 2032: Rose is 25**

Rose tried to close her eyes and forget her nervousness, but it was difficult to relax when Dominique Weasley was tugging at her hair, using all sorts of charms to transform her usual waves into more elaborate curls.

"Why d'you have to be so rough, Dom?" Rose asked wearily through half-closed eyes. Without even looking, she knew that her cousin was rolling her eyes in exasperation.

"Why? _Why? _ Because your hair is stubborn, woman!" Dominique said shrilly, and tugged at her hair again. "And we don't have much time!"

No, time was a thing they didn't have; Dominique had a point there. They were expected in less than an hour and Rose still wasn't dressed for the occasion. Still, she would feel less stressed about the whole situation if Dominique wasn't oozing panic from every one of her perfect pores.

The door behind them opened quietly and Rose cracked an eye open to see if she could see who was entering using the reflection of the mirror which sat in front of her. The angle wasn't quite right, so all she could see was her robes hanging on the back of the door.

Dominique turned to the door and let out a gasp. "You can't be in here!" She exclaimed in a scandalised tone. "Get out!"

Rose frowned. There was only one person those words could apply to. Her spirits lifted slightly just knowing he was near, even though she knew that there was no way that Dominique was going to allow him any closer.

"Relax, Dom," Scorpius said in the playful, mocking voice that Rose had come to know so well. "What difference does it make?"

"What _difference_?" Dom squealed, in a way that was rather unbecoming of her. "It's her _wedding day_!"

Rose noticed the door open wider and she could now see her fiancé's hand propping it open.

"Oh, right…" Scorpius drawled, and Rose could practically _hear_ the smirk. "Well, how about I _Obliviate_ myself after I leave the room, eh?"

And with that, he strode into the room, and taking the hairbrush from Dominique's hand and came to stand behind Rose. "Why don't you go and get yourself ready, Dom?" He asked pleasantly, resting a hand atop Rose's head gently. "I'll look after the bride until you get back." His voice held the quiet authority that Rose had learned to associate with those in the Malfoy family. It wasn't said in a menacing way, but carried a quiet undertone, which made it quite clear that it was an order, not a request.

Dominique glanced briefly at Rose, who had yet to speak. They made eye contact in the mirror, and then Rose slowly closed her eyes in relaxation, which Dom took as a signal of Rose's contentment with the situation. She huffed and flounced out of the room, closing the door with a snap.

There was silence. Rose finally spoke, still with her eyes closed. "She won't be gone long, you know," she said.

Scorpius snorted as he began to gently brush out her long waves. "I know. And she'll probably bring back the entire Weasley army to frog-march me out of here and to the altar."

Rose's lips twitched into a smile. She already felt her nerves slipping away as the sensation of the brush running through her hair smoothly felt like a comforting caress. She exhaled loudly.

"Calm now, love?" Scorpius asked, planting a soft kiss on the crown of her head, and then resting his head upon hers for a short while before returning to the steady brushing.

Rose nodded. "Much better," she agreed. "Dom was just getting me more worked up by the minute. One day she'll realise my hair doesn't curl like she wanted it to. I'm not Mum."

"Thank Merlin for that!" Scorpius said with a grin. He kissed her head again, and this time Rose turned her head to capture his lips.

"I thank Merlin for a lot of things," Rose said, taking his hand and tracing patterns over his fingers. "I thank Merlin that they found a counter-curse for our parents, I thank Merlin that we stopped fighting at school, and I thank Merlin that I agreed to marry a certain Malfoy."

"Wait, you're marrying my father?" Scorpius exclaimed, and Rose swatted him playfully.

"Be serious."

"I always am," he insisted. He sat down on the low dresser in front of Rose's chair and took her hands in his. "Rosie, " he said quietly, "I'm so glad they succeeded in finding the counter curse. I'll forever be grateful for that, because I love my dad. But somehow I feel oddly grateful that they were cursed too, because that's what brought me closer to you, and I couldn't be more grateful for that." He kissed her knuckles and looked up into her eyes, which were glistening with unshed tears.

"Scor…" she said hoarsely. She could never fathom out how this boy – now this man – managed to make her feel emotions like this. She had never been in love with anyone else, but she couldn't imagine feeling this way about anyone else. It was always him.

"Shh, you don't have to say anything," he said. Then he reached into his pocket. "There was something I wanted to give you before we did this," he said, pulling out a slim red envelope and a ruby-coloured velvet box.

"I didn't know we were exchanging presents," Rose said, her brow furrowed in confusion.

"We're not," he replied with a gentle shrug. "But I was looking through some old photograph albums the other week and I found these." Handing her the envelope, he waited for her to open it.

Out slid three photographs; all moving, and all looking rather dated now. Rose looked at the images. In the first one, a blonde haired boy was running around under a tree in a park, giggling wildly. Rose grinned.

"Was that you?"

Scorpius nodded. "I know, I was devastatingly handsome even then," he said with a wink. "Look at the next ones."

She shuffled through to the next photograph and squinted at it. There was a box of sand in the same park, and young Scorpius was in it, accompanied by a small girl. The girl licked her hand and held it out to Scorpius, who backed away in horror.

"Who is that?" Rose asked curiously. Scorpius gestured to her to look at the last photograph. It was a zoomed-in version of the one before; this time, however, the young Scorpius was eating a cherry, watched avidly by the little girl. For a second, the girl seemed to look straight at the camera as if she knew it was there, and Rose gasped. She recognised that face.

"That's … is that _me_?" she asked in astonishment, glancing up at Scorpius in shock. "What was _I _doing there?"

Scorpius smiled up at her. "I didn't remember either, to be honest," he admitted. "But I got Mother to tell me the story of the little girl with the cherries, in the sand pit. She says I told her all about the girl with the funny colour hair, who knew about Hogwarts, who said she would be my best friend, and who wouldn't eat cherry stones because –"

"—Mum said a cherry tree would grow in my tummy…" Rose murmured, looking down at the photographs once more. "So…we met for the first time…long before we met for the first time."

"Trust you to make it sound more complicated and poetic than it really is," Scorpius said with an amused shake of his head. "I just think it's strange how we bumped into each other all those years before Hogwarts, and then at school, crossed paths again and again…"

"It was meant to be."

"It was meant to be, love," he agreed. He held out the box to her. "Anyway, Dominique will no doubt be back soon, I've taken up too much of her time as it is, and you need to get a dress on, from what I've heard."

Rose took the box from his hand. It was suspiciously ring-sized. "A ring?" she said curiously, prising the box open.

It was a ring, but it was a beautifully simple and elegant ring. A single silver band, dotted with two rubies and an emerald. The rubies were set into a silver cherry-shaped casing with the emerald making up the stalk.

"Scor…" Rose whispered, looking up at her fiancé with wide eyes. "It's so beautiful."

"Like you," Scorpius said with a wink, and Rose rolled her eyes at the cheesy line. He leant forward and slipped the ring onto her right ring finger. "Gotta leave space for the one you're gonna get in a little while," he said with a grin. Kissing her forehead, he stood up. "Guess I'd better be going."

Rose bowed her head. She missed his close proximity to her already. "Don't forget to _Obliviate_ yourself, love," she murmured.

Scorpius snorted. "As if I'm really going to do that. I want to remember every second of you."

Rose smiled weakly. The nervousness about what they were about to do was rapidly returning.

"I'll see you at the altar soon, love," Scorpius told her, stroking her hair. "This is what we want to do, remember?"

She nodded. "I know. I love you _so _much."

"And I love you too, Rosie." Bending down to whisper in her ear, he said. "I was made for lovin' you baby, you were made for lovin' me, and I can't get enough of you baby, can you get enough of me?"

Rose crinkled her face into a frown. "What was that?"

Her fiancé leaned back and shrugged nonchalantly. "Looks like my Muggle Studies NEWT paid off…I did a paper on Muggle rock music," he said casually. "1979, American rock band, called Kiss…"

Rose batted his arm playfully. "Show-off," she muttered, and Scorpius chuckled.

"Says the smart one," he retorted.

"Oh, shush."

Scorpius tapped her on the nose and then headed to the door. "Love you, Rosie-Pose!"

"_Rosie-Pose_?"

"Isn't it customary for married couples to have affectionate nicknames?"

Rose snorted softly. "Not like that."

Scorpius sighed theatrically. "_Fi-iine_," he said. "I'll be going now, then."

"'Kay," Rose mumbled. "See you soon, Scor,"

"See you in a minute, love!" he strolled out of the room, blowing kisses in an over-dramatic fashion, and Rose couldn't help but smile at her goofy boyfriend. He had mellowed a lot since he'd been the sarcastic, arrogant clone of his father at school, and she loved him for it.

And now she was going to marry him; the only boy she had hated…and the only man she had loved. Things had never felt so right. She thought back over the lyrics that Scorpius had whispered in her ear before leaving.

_I was made for lovin' you baby,_

_You were made for lovin' me,_

_And I can't get enough of you baby,_

_Can you get enough of me?_

The answer to that question was easy enough, because no, Rose could _never _get enough of Scorpius. And she was about to go and get married to the man, so she supposed that was just as well.

* * *

><p><em>It began with a cherry, was followed by a curse and ended, quite fittingly, with a kiss. It wasn't an easy relationship, but it was our relationship, and the one piece of advice I always gave to our children was "Don't eat the cherry stones or a tree will grow in your belly."<em>

* * *

><p><em><strong>AN: So, I finally finished it! It's been a long time, and this is the first piece of fiction that I've written since Christmas, so I think I may have lost my touch a little. I don't think it's my best attempt at a final chapter, but it does include the final two prompts for the challenge. I would appreciate any reviews, don't be afraid to be honest! Thanks for reading this far, and hopefully I'll be back writing properly (and better) again in no time! **_

_**Pottermore: CatPatronus5250**_

_**Twitter: (at)rllock**_

_**Blog: myself – etc. blogspot . com (take out the spaces)**_

_**Thanks again! Hugs! x**_


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